The scoop: More than 1,300 guests packed the hotel ballroom for the dinner evening that raised more than $2.5 million for Houston Methodist’s research, education and patient care mission.

Applause, applause for chairs Cam and Rod Canion and Elizabeth and Peter Wareing and for the honorees who spurred the generosity — Emily Crosswell, financer and philanthropist Sanford Weill, Occidental Petroleum and the John S. Dunn Foundation.

Weill, chair emeritus of the Weill Cornell Medical College board of overseers, talked on the 30 affiliation agreements between Cornell and Houston Methodist.